Metal Lessons

Ben: Lick Collections

In the following seven lessons I will show you some of the most common patterns used in the shred guitar style. There's the diatonic scalar approach, a few pentatonic patterns and the classically inspired pedal notes.

Just like the first tutorial in this series, this one is packed with really good examples of patterns and techniques used by some of the fastest players in the world. We will cover tapping, legato, and alternate picking.

Ben: Metal Rhythm and Riffs

If you haven't been playing the guitar for very long, the thought of getting into metal might seem overwhelming. But you can come a long way by learning the basics, which is what this tutorial is all about! I'll get you started on power chords and palm muting, scales, and getting an evil sound, all with examples.

In this ten lesson tutorial, we'll expand on what we learned in Metal for Beginners I. Here I will recap the first tutorial in this series, then I'll talk about alternate picking and give examples, quick switching between palm muting and not muting, look at hammer-ons and pull-offs (it's hammertime!), metal with a clean sound, and an epic intro!

A solid rhythm guitar is key to any song, and this tutorial will give you 9 very good exercises to develop your metal rhythm playing. We will play four 8th note rhythms, and then move up in difficulty as we switch to 16th note rhythms at the same tempo. Your picking hand will have to work hard here!

First I will explain to you what CAD tuning is, and why it can be useful. After that I will teach you a short little metal song I wrote just for this tutorial. At the end of the tutorial, as a bonus, I will also show you how you can take this tuning one step further, and tune to CADGCEb.

Don: Metal

This tutorial was essentially inspired by many of the great shredders over the years, who have employed these licks so effectively. The overall purpose of it will be to learn how to cover the entire range of the neck of the guitar using 3 note per string-Shred/Speed style licks. All the licks in this set of lessons will be based in the A Aeolian Mode (A Natural Minor scale). The tutorial is labeled as an "Advanced" level group of lessons...But honestly if you slow them down and take your time & practice them carefully, they should work well for building the technique of nearly any level player. Much like my "Basic Tapping" tutorial...I will be constantly working to add new lessons to this group.

We will be using some of the rhythms from a tune that I wrote for my old band back in the late 80's. The rhythm parts were pretty heavily modeled after some of my favorite tunes of that era and are also fairly easy to play, once you get used to the tempo. Though te bulk of the rhythm work will take place on the low E String (E-String Death Chunk...LOL), we will also take a quick look at a few other staples of that era, including palm muting, chromatic riffs, suspended chords & a bit more.

Prashant: Metal Artist Studies

George Lynch has been called one of the most influential guitarists of his time. In this artist study we're going to look at some of the elements of his style: solo motifs, slide vibrato, resolving licks, pick tapping, and tone.

This Megadeth artist study takes a look at some of the elements in the style of Marty Friedman, the band's guitar player from 1990-2000. We'll look at some of the dark modes, the rhythms and riffs, the "Marty Friedman bend", and some solo ideas. We'll top it all off with a play along to a custom backing track, so you can experiment with these concepts!

In this artist study, we take a tour through some of the elements of the late, great Randy Rhoads style of lead playing. Some of the tricks we'll look at are using the on/off toggle switch, neck-bending, trills, diatonic triplets, and pentatonic licks. Jam along with the backing track in the final lesson!

Metal Topics

In this tutorial, we'll introduce you to drop C tuning. This tuning is used by many metal artists, as it is a full two whole steps down from the standard tuning and gives a powerful, deep sound to your guitar. We'll look at how to tune this way, some chords and shapes you can use, and play an example progression.

In these lessons I will leave standard power chords behind and show you four types of chords that are just as useful, that you may not have seen before. In the first two examples, I will take you through inversions. After that we'll take a look at using thirds, and last but not least, the progressive metal power chord.

Guitar Tricks Channel host Neal Walter loves metal guitar and the sonic intersection point between metal and classic rock. In these lessons Neal will teach you some of his favorite topics from 80s metal to more modern drop D sounds.

This tutorial will teach you some of the elements of the Iron Maiden style. Instructor Mike Olekshy examines their use of rhythms, their single note lines, their "two guitar attack", some of the types of progressions they use, and how they achieve their tone. You can play along with a Maiden-esque backing track to top it all off!

In these nine guitar lessons, Ry Kihn will tune you in to some of the elements of the Metallica style. Ry will give an overview to the metal band's approach, then get into the gear and tones. Next up is using palm muting and power chords in a riff, then some galloping rhythm examples. You'll then learn some scales and patterns to apply to your "Metallica" style soloing.

This style tutorial takes a look at seven styles of metal, and how the rhythm guitar approaches those styles using example riffs: Sabbath, Thrash, Drop-D tuning ala Pantera, Hair, Death, the "Gallop", and 7-string.